Monday 16 May 2011

Wasteland

Wasteland is a television pilot script I have recently been researching and trying to write. It is about a psychic named Connor Song who is implicated in a young woman's murder so he not only has to solve the case to prove his innocence he must also prove his abilities to the sceptical Detective Inspector Bonnie Morran who is leading the case. I hope it will lead to a full series where Song helps the begrudging police force to solve their more complex crimes and also allow me to delve deeper into his murky past as well as his troubled relationship with his 12 year old daughter who feels detached from her father due to his unending search to discover what truly happened to his wife 6 years before when she mysteriously vanished.

It is some ways the hardest script I have ever written and in other the easiest I'll try to explain this the best I can. What is easy about writing this script is at its core it is a drama about a single parent who is trying to raise his daughter the best he can while trying to balance his work which takes him away from her all the time. He is a somewhat famous tv/ theatre psychic and bestselling author of books on the occult so his work takes him all over the UK leaving his young daughter behind in the care of her aunt and when he is home he spends most of his time trying to investigate his wife's disappearance this schedule does little to diminish his daughter's belief that he cares more about what happened to her mother than he does about her.

The hard part of writing this script is the more I research the more questions I end up with instead of answers. I have finally put in stone what psychic abilities he possesses which took many many hours of consideration and a lot of great help from a good friend of mine who has helped me immeasurably in this area. The problem is I don't as of yet fully understand the complex nature of one of these abilities completely or honestly at all. He has the ability to read tarot cards which many of you may think is relatively easy to write about but in practise it is very complex. Each set of cards has a significance and each card in that set has a significance that I just can't quite get to grips with as yet which is probably to do with the fact that I can't really seem to learn many new things these days probably to do with the brain damage I have suffered over the years which makes this aspect of the character alien to me which is devastating for a writer.

The investigation and crime within the pilot episode is not that difficult to write as I can hear the police officers voices clearly in my head and we all have the basic knowledge of how a murder is investigated. I have recently been in email correspondence with an ex CID detective from London and he has filled in many of the blanks for me without going into to much detail for obvious reasons after all I could have been a nut trying to get tips on how to get away with murder, haha. For the show to be successful in my opinion the character of Detective Inspector Bonnie Morran has to be as strong a character as Connor Song otherwise it becomes less dramatic when they have confrontations and there is less of a chance for there to be any chemistry between the characters in later episodes. I think all too often with television shows they concentrate on creating one memorable character at the expense of all the others which to me is frankly stupid and boring to watch as a viewer.

I'll keep you guys up to date on my progress with the script and with trying to get it into production. It will be a long process as I plan on writing and rewriting this till I get it as close to perfect as possible. Anyhoo that is enough for now I got to get back to writing this script and thinking of a way to make tomorrow not happen ha ha I hit the 29 mark tomorrow which many may be shocked by as they seem to think I'm 35 years old for some reason ha ha.

Thanking you
The Housebound Writer

2 comments:

  1. First of all happy birthday my friend. 30 is a big dead. Or they say. Hope you had a great day. That concept sounds pretty good. Have you ever though about making short flicks your self? Get a crew together and just go man. Do it! :)

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  2. Hey Tim, don't jump the gun my friend I am 29 not 30 lol I'll scrape and claw to hold onto my twenties for as long as I can. I made short films back in College and loved the experience and would really like to delve back into it in fact I may make that my number 1 goal for this year make another short flick. It was great to hear from you friend talk to you soon!!

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